I live on a one way street. the amount of times people go the wrong way is too high.
One word: bicycles
Two words: electric scooters
You forgot dipshit drivers.
Three words: dip shit drivers.
Four words: I can’t spell well.
Bicycles (and electric scooters) are vehicles that should also be following the same rules as car, i.e. not driving the wrong way down a one way street and not bombing down the sidewalk. I mean, I still look both ways, but that’s because people are dumb maniacs on the road, not because bicycles.
should
Almost died once to a woman going 75 on the wrong side of the 4 lane divided road. I dodged her but she hit a car behind me. :/
Always. Look. Both. Ways.
The anecdote my dad always told me was being smart is knowing it’s a one way street, being wise is looking both ways anyways
Yeah well looking the ‘wrong’ way on a 1 way street has stopped me from getting run over, and looking both ways before going on the green has saved my life from a red light runner when I was on my motorcycle.
You basically need to assume everyone in a car is an axe wielding maniac out to kill you if you’re on a motorcycle. I had a family member crash after a driver didn’t look left before pulling out of a driveway and put them out of commission for a few months, plus some new hardware. Stay safe!
That attitude has kept me alive for 23 years of riding. Many have tried to kill me, but I saw most of them coming and got lucky the couple times I didn’t.
if you’re
not on a motorcyclenot in a larger car
There are rules to driving like language has grammar rules, they don’t exist and anything can happen you just gotta hope most of the time people around you roughly follow them… but don’t assume that means the rules exist.
I’ve seen enough vehicles driving the wrong direction that I’m not risking it.
You should always be looking both ways, if not for vehicles, then at least for pedestrians who have no direction.
You have to look the other way anyway in case there might be pedestrians or cyclists crossing your path.
Or another car
Basic etiquettes in Asia.
If someone is going the wrong way down a one-way, you really want to know about them.
Pedestrians?
Moving from a walker hostile city to a walk friendly city, I forgot they existed and had some close calls. I’m pretty aware of them now.
Cyclists are the worst
It happens more often than you think.
Literally every day, multiple times per hour, at a one-way by my home.
I stand in the street and yell at them until they back up and turn around on the street i live on
It’s true, I don’t think very often.
I personally see it on my street once or twice a month, seems unlikely I’d happen to see it every time it happens
And the person doing that is a bad driver and/or has attention problems
Did that once, cost me 30 bucks. Didn’t see the sign, whoops. I did notice once it was too late tho.
I used to live next to a one way street that was two ways all around it. One of the only one way streets in that small town, next to where all the bars were, in a college town, and there was just enough of a hill to make it so two cars at opposite ends of it could not see each other. It was only a block long but the number of crashes and death defying attempts at crossing it on foot was astounding
I remember a vid of a cyclist going the wrong way down a 1 way street. Pedestrian didn’t look that way and bam. Guess who the cyclist blamed.
Where I’m from most one way streets are only one way for cars and such, bicycles are often explicitly allowed in both directions
Not to say that it was the case in the video
I always do this because I have gone down too many one way streets and found someone else going the wrong way. It’s not uncommon
Being in a situation where I was on the highway being passed by an on coming car on the same side… you ALWAYS look both ways. Stupidity has no bounds.
The first year I got my license (15+ years ago) I looked one way then the other. Rolled forward. Hit a cyclist that was riding full speed on the sidewalk in the wrong direction. Bent front tire and they lost balance.
Got them to a bank and Throw them $200 money then made them sign a waiver of liability with no fault admitted. She didn’t like signing the paper and I told her $200 now and sign or go through my car insurance.
Worth the $200 to make it go away.
I always look both ways and glace down the damn sidewalk too for cyclists now.
on the sidewalk in the wrong direction.
There is no wrong direction on the sidewalk. Sidewalks are two-way.
Wrong direction meaning against the flow of traffic. I looked right and saw nothing. Then left and rolled forward trying to get my chance to get into traffic. She came in front of me from the right.
Also that street has seperate two direction bike lanes.
You were 100% liable for hitting a cyclist and you cheerfully admit to paying them off with a pittance of the damage you caused and forcing them to sign away their rights? That’s pretty fucking shitty.
At least your last paragraph makes it sound like you learnt from the behaviour that led to your mistake in the first place.
In America that waiver might have been unenforceable… Or one would hope.
Nope. It was enforceable. Consulted a lawyer. Standard for cash settlements actually. Any time you settle a claim outside of insurance you should have one. Otherwise they could file a claim immediately after getting the cash.
Same shit corps do with “out of court” settlements when someone sues and has a good case to win.
Seems crazy that you got to a bank and got a lawyer so fast. But it’s stuff like this that convinced me to not ride on the sidewalk, even though it’s legal where I live. Drivers just don’t see you.
When a lady hit my brother doing the same thing (except we saw her not look in our direction) his bike was messed up but she just left and we were kids so we didn’t know to do anything different.
These events happened over the course of two weeks. I didn’t think I’d be scrutinized this much over sharing my experience.
Crashed into a cyclist while I was going 5 or 10 mph. No idea how fast she was going but I looked right and didn’t see anyone. Then left and rolled forward. Then bent her front tire and she dismounted. My car got up to her front axle.
I immediately got out. Apologized. Asked if she was OK. Offered to call ambulance, taxi or friend. She was upset (rightfully so) but we exchanged info and I gave her my insurance. She turned down my offer to call anyone for assistance or give her a ride to her destination.
I opened a claim with my insurance immediately. Gabe my statement. Told them idk what she wants to do but I’m covering my basis.
I called her 3 days later. Asked how she was doing. She said she was a little sore but fine. Didn’t go to the hospital. I told her I opened a claim and got a PIP if she needs medical attention. She reassured she was physically fine. I offered $200 to repair/replace the bicycle and she accepted. I told her I’d reach out to schedule it later andy insurance was going to call her for a statement. She agreed.
Told my family about the crash. Glad she was OK. Family warned me to be careful she doesn’t continue the claim after getting cash. This is maybe a week later. I consulted a lawyer and they said a letter with XYZ would cover me legally. I also happened to run into a cop at a coffee shop and asked him his opinion. He said it was hard to say but from his perspective I wasn’t at fault.
I scheduled a meet up a week after the accident. Set the location near her at a bank. Safe public place. Presented her with the money order and waiver of liability. She initially didn’t want to sign so I explained my side.
It’s just to cover me so she doesn’t continue the insurance claim or sue me after the payment. If she’s concerned about anything long term she can continue with the insurance claim or take a payment now with a waiver and we go our separate ways. She wasn’t happy with signing a waiver buy wanted this behind her so she signed (notorized by the bank) and took the payment.
I really didn’t want to say all that because it’s a wall of text but being downvoted and attacked for sharing my experience is going to remind me to keep my damn mouth shut.
This detail is way more sympathetic than your first account.
Don’t be too surprised people didn’t like you running into a cyclist and paying them off.
Idk why my reply didn’t save but:
I did everything by the book. Gave her my info and insurance. I opened a claim and had them take a statement from her.
I offered her a $200 settlement to replace/repair her bike and she accepted. I surprised her with a waiver of liability and gave her the choice of $200 now or continue with the claim.
I think I handled it very responsibly as my first incident in my early 20s.
Do I feel guilty for hurting someone? Yes absolutely. At the same time I’m allowed to be glad to avoid insurance bs.
I immediately became a safer driver and I hope she was also more careful about going full speed on the sidewalk in the wrong direction of traffic.
Oh and BTW we even had bicycle lanes on the street. In my state you’re treated as a car if you’re riding the bike. She wasn’t following the rules of the road and probably would have gotten nothing through insurance. Everyone told me not to pay her off.
I hope she was also more careful about going full speed on the sidewalk in the wrong direction of traffic.
Literally victim blaming. It’s completely normal to travel in either direction on the footpath.
we even had bicycle lanes on the street
Paint is not infrastructure.
I’m done with this thread. Real nice skipping the part about me learning from the experience.
You’ve already made your stance clear and this is an event from literally 16 years ago.
I’ve been in exactly 2 at fault accidents in those 16 years. This includes driving for 10 hours a day for years working on the road.Yeah I’m done.
Your defensiveness doesn’t make it feel like you learnt from it. You might have learnt how to avoid that kind of crash (crash, not accident) in the future, which is fantastic, but you haven’t internalised that it was because of your own inattentiveness in operating a dangerous vehicle that the crash occurred, and not because of the perfectly acceptable behaviour from a member of a vulnerable group. A vulnerable group that you victimised.
You have a valid stance and I was driving irresponsibly. I’ve I have been a cyclist for 35 years. Going on trips driving for miles, so I understand.
You’re not going to change my feelings over our matter that happened 16 years ago and it’s in the past. I literally forgot about it until this thread. I only shared my story as a cautionary tale to other readers.
I only shared my story as a cautionary tale to other readers.
Genuinely, I appreciate that. The importance of looking both ways when approaching an intersection, even if the road is one way, is critical, for the safety of cyclists and pedestrians. Your goal in sharing the story was a good one. It’s just the tone of how you told the story that seemed rather off.
Oh, you wanna get weird about it, try going to a place where they drive on the other side of the road.
You’ll want to look the right way. Your brain knows it should be backwards, and you will be physically unable to do it.
And then if you stay long enough it’ll switch and be switched now and it feels like you randomly became left handed or something.
